


Learning

by readingrainbow



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Cheesy, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-01
Updated: 2014-06-01
Packaged: 2018-02-03 01:05:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1725539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readingrainbow/pseuds/readingrainbow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yeah, Nico should have learned his lesson from the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Learning

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first fanfiction. please comment and tell me how im doing. Also, please message me if there is any spelling/grammatical errors

Nico has been trying to learn from his past mistakes, but for some reason he couldn’t seem to learn from this one.        

Jason and Nico are sitting on the deck of the Argo II, on guard duty. And Nico, as usual was lost in his thoughts.

“Are you okay? Is there something on my face? You’re staring at me,” asked Jason, looking up from where he was messing around with his lance. He smiles with amusement dancing in his eyes.

Shit, Nico thinks, flushing. “I’m fine,” he replies, quickly looking back down at the book he was reading.

“What book are you reading?” Jason asks, leaning over Nico’s shoulder to look at the pages.

Nico slams the book closed and shoves it underneath him before Jason can decipher the jumbled mess of words that his dyslexia gives him. Nico quickly realizes that he overreacted though. It's Jason, Nico thinks, I don’t need to hide my copy of “Oddly Normal” from him, he already knows I’m gay. 

Still Nico blushes and mumbles, “None of your business.”

Jason quirks an eyebrow, “Really it can’t be nothing if you’re trying to hide it.” Jason starts to reach over Nico to get the book from underneath the son of Hades.

“No,” Nico says, pushing Jason away. Nico’s pride not allowing Jason to see after Nico made such a big deal out of it.

Jason raises his eyebrows and a mischievous glint shines in his eyes. “Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be?”

Before Nico knows what is happening, the son of Jupiter has tackled the unsuspecting Nico to the wood floor and is attacking his sides.

Nico instantly burst out laughing, trying to wiggle out of Jason’s grip. Jason was chuckling above Nico-he couldn’t help it. Nico’s face screwed up with a giant grin spread wide on his face, giggling uncontrollably was adorable, thought Jason.

“Stop, Jason, stop it,” Nico said between laughs. Jason slowly came to a stop and rested his hands on the ground beside Nico chest.

When Nico looked up Jason had an endearing crooked smile on his face and the morning sunlight was dancing in his hair and reflecting in his eyes. Nico was so busy admiring how beautiful Jason looked ( _and gods he’s so nice and loyal and he doesn’t think I’m a freak and he tries, tries to_ understand me)  that it took him a few seconds to realize that Jason was on top of him- _sitting on top of his crotch!_

Nico could feel heat rising to his cheeks, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the stupid scar on Jason lip (okay, so it’s not _that_ stupid) long enough to tell Jason to get the fuck off him.

Slowly, Jason’s triumphant smirk slid off his face and an emotion in his eyes flickered-shock maybe. Even though Nico was staring so intently he couldn’t quite place the emotion.

Jason blushed slightly after awhile and scrambled to get off Nico, coughing quietly in discomfort and unintentionally breaking the awkward silence.

Nico slowly sat up and grabbed his book that had been thrown to the side during the scuffle.

“I’m reading ‘Oddly Normal’,” murmured Nico, not meeting Jason’s eyes.

“Oh, cool. Is it any good? Maybe I’ll read it sometime,” Jason said, trying to look casual but failing due to the fact that he was blushing and staring straight ahead at the rising sun instead of looking at Nico.

“Yeah,” Nico replied.

“Well it’s almost time for Percy and Frank to start their shift, we should start packing up,” Jason said grabbing his spear and raising from the ground, still not meeting Nico’s eyes.

The son of Hades didn't say anything and just rises with his book and starts heading below deck.

Nico hears Jason sigh behind him.

Stupid, Nico thinks, that’s it he figured it out, and now I’ve lost the one person who actually gives a damn about me who’s not my sister. He figured it out and now he hates me. He was okay with it when it wasn’t him but now…

Maybe he doesn’t know, another part of Nico thought, he’s almost as oblivious as Percy, I mean look at Reyna and Piper…

How could he not realize, Nico thinks, I wouldn’t even need to look at myself to see it was written all over my face. Jason’s not that stupid, besides unlike Percy, Jason’s aware it could be a possibility.

Nico enters his cold, dark room and lets the tears that he has been hiding since Jason leaped off him slid down his face.

And for that first time since Nico and Jason had the encounter with Cupid, he feels utterly alone.

Yeah, Nico should have learned from the first time.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

A few months after the Seven (and Nico) took down Gaia the group had returned to camp Half-Blood and have been trying to find ways to unite both camps.

Nico has been adamantly avoiding Jason, which wasn’t very hard considering the threat of eminent doom hanging above everyone’s head. Now that their schedules have been cleared Nico has had to work a little harder to avoid the inevitable-Jason telling him to fuck off.

Nico was sitting on a secluded part of the beach avoiding Jason (it sounds like a bad idea, usually Nico tries to avoid the beach for obvious reasons (son of Hades= can’t swim) but Jason would avoid the beach for similar reasons) when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.

Nico jumps, too absorbed in his brooding that he didn’t hear someone walk up behind him. He looks up to see Jason (Jason!) taking a seat on the sand next to him.

“Sorry for scaring you,” Jason says smiling at Nico’s shocked expression, and- Holy shit eye contact! “Lunch is ready; I came to look for you. You need to start eating more, man.”

“Okay,” Nico says, hurriedly standing up to hide his blush. “Let’s go.”

Before he can get anywhere Jason grabs his wrist. Nico looks down to where Jason is still sitting and feels anxiety start to run through him when he sees the playfulness gone from Jason’s face.

“Can we talk? After lunch, I mean?” says Jason. “Alone,” he continues after a pause, “it’s important.”

Nico feels dread sweep through him, this is it, he thinks. Nico nods.

“Okay, meet me on the benches by the climbing wall after lunch?” Jason asks.

Nico nods again, not making eye contact.

Jason absentmindedly nods back and lets go of Nico’s wrist and stands up.

“Alright, let’s go,” prompts Jason.

They walk in complete silence to the dinning pavilion, Nico silently freaking out the whole way.

~~~

Nico doesn’t show up.

He leaves lunch early and books it back to his cabin and hides underneath the dark sanctuary of his bed.

Some might find it cowardly, but with all the shit he’s had to go through and the things he has had to fight; he thinks he deserves to finally hide from something.

~~~

This goes on for a few more days, this cat and mouse game. Jason tries to catch Nico and talk to him and Nico runs and hides every time he sees Jason.

One night Nico is curled up in his bed sleeping, when all of a sudden; he is woken up by the bed shifting next to him. Ever since his time in Tartarus, he has been a light sleeper and wakes right up.

Nico jumps and spins around reaching for the light and his sword at the same time. When the light floods the cabin Nico is surprised to see Jason sitting crossed legged on the side of the bed he is not occupying.

“Jason! What in the Gods name are you doing in here?” Nico asks shocked.

“You’ve been avoiding me Nico, I thought this would be the easiest place to catch you,” Jason says calmly. “We need to talk.”

“So you snuck into my cabin at-”Nico looks at the clock on his night stand “-2:16? You have problems.”

“No, we obviously have problems that need resolving, otherwise you wouldn’t be avoiding me,” Jason replies.

There’s a long moment of silence.

Jason sighs, “Look Nico, about what happened a few months ago-”

“Stop.” Nico says, blushing. Nico looks down at his lap (and as he is he notices that Jason is only wearing a pair of plaid pajama pants--Great) feeling humiliated and like he could throw-up any second, “I know what you’re going to say, y-you don’t need to tell me I already know.”

Nico waits in silence readying himself for Jason to get up and never talk to him again.

“Really, who told you?” Jason says quietly.

Nico sneaks a peak at Jason and finds him blushing, looking at his lap.

“No one had to tell me, I can take a hint,” Nico says.

Jason blushes harder, “So that’s the reason you’ve been avoiding me,” Jason whispers.

There’s a long silence, Nico feels like he is suffocating.

“I’m sorry,” Jason whispers, “I’m guessing by your unenthusiastic response and you avoiding me you don’t feel the same way. I’m sorry for scaring you off. I’d still really like to be friends. You can just ignore that-that I-”

“What are you talking about?” Nico asks. This wasn’t what he was expecting at all. Why is Jason beating around the bush, pretending to want to still be friends? “Just go back to Piper and leave me alone.”

Nico looks up glaring at Jason but falters when he sees the expression on Jason’s face.

Jason- the all mighty son of Jupiter- looks about ready to cry.

“Fine,” Jason says, “I’m sorry.”

Jason slowly gets off the bed with his head down.

“Wait! What’s wrong, why are you crying?” Nico says without thinking, so shocked at seeing Jason in tears.

“I-I just thought you’d be a little nicer while rejecting me-with what happened to you with Percy!” Jason says loudly, voice choked up with his tears. Jason looks Nico in the eyes, his brilliant blue eyes even brighter with the tears reflecting the light in them. “I’m sorry that I freaked you out with this-You don’t think I was when I figured it out? I thought I was straight and that Piper was my soul mate! You don’t need to be a dick about it though! I know I’m not your first pick and I’ll never live up to your fantasies about Percy but I thought you’d at least let me down easy! I thought we were friends Nico!”

Nico sits in stunned silence for a few seconds.

“Whatever,” Jason sniffs, turning to leave again.

“Wait!” Nico says grabbing Jason’s wrist when he tries to turn towards the door. “What do you mean-about- about Piper and being straight? Isn’t Piper your girlfriend?”

Jason just stares into Nico’s eyes for a minute.

“Piper and I broke up,” Jason says. “Right before the battle with Gaia. She thought she was subconsciously charm speaking me into loving her.”

There’s a long silence while they try to get their thoughts together.

“I think we need to start over,” Nico whispers. “We’re obviously not on the same page.”

“Okay,” Jason says back, still staring into Nico’s dark eyes. Nico stares back, then slowly releases Jason’s wrist and moves back to his original side of the bed. Jason moves to sit on the bed too, still not breaking their intense staring contest.

They sit there staring at each other for a few more intense moments before Jason abruptly looks down and clears his throat.

“What did you want to talk about?” Nico asks.

Jason sighs, “Listen,” Jason reaches out to grab Nico’s hand but pulls back before making contact, “I just… You and me had been hanging out a lot and I learned a lot about you and I had shared things with you that I haven’t told anyone. And, gods, Nico you’re nothing like I thought you were. You’re sarcastic, and funny and when you get excited you start talking fast and loudly and using these cute hand gestures and when you laugh your face scrunches up in the most adorable way and I just-” Jason pauses, and takes a deep breath, “I realized when we were wrestling a few months ago that I thought you were amazing and I really, really wanted to kiss you…

“It scared me, you know? I know you’re not completely over Percy- and you won’t ever really be over him considering he was your first love-and I was still with Piper and I never even entertained the idea of being with a guy, but gods Nico, I love you.” Jason finishes.

Nico’s eyes are filled with tears as he replies, “I love you too. I thought you had figured out how I felt about you and had come here to tell me you hated me.”

“Gods, Nico I would never do that,” Jason exclaims.

Nico laughs a little, before grabbing Jason’s hand where he left in earlier. Nico flips the son of Jupiter’s hand over and starts to play with Jason fingers, a small smile gracing his lips.

Jason can’t tear his eyes away from Nico’s lips and the small dimple that’s in the left side of his cheek.

Nico looks up to where Jason is staring at him and smiles (a real genuine smile-and fuck, the dimple) at the son of the sky.

Nico pulls Jason by the hand closer to him and wraps his arms around Jason’s broad shoulders- hiding his grin in Jason’s neck.

Jason chuckles and wraps his arms around Nico’s back, pulling the son of Hades closer to himself, pressing his smile into Nico shoulder.

They stay like that for a few minutes, drinking in the love they feel for each other.

Jason moves to hook his chin over Nico’s shoulder, glancing at the clock. “It’s getting late.” Jason whispers into Nico’s ear.

“Mmmm,” Nico hums.

Jason chuckles and moves to remove Nico’s arms from around his neck, “I need to go back to my cabin. Besides you’re obviously tired,” Jason says.

Nico tightens his arms around Jason’s neck, “Mmmm, stay.”

Jason freezes for a second before nodding, “Okay,” he whispers.

Nico lossens his arms and backs away from Jason, giving him a sleepy smile and rubbing his eye.

Jason smiles softly back before grabbing the bed sheets and climbing under them and laying down, pulling Nico with him.

Nico lays his head on Jasons shoulder and the son of the sky wraps his arms around Nico’s waist. Nico curls into Jason, resting his hand over his bare chest.

“Buonanotte,” Nico whispers. “Ti amo.”

“I have no idea what you just said,” Jason whispers back, a goofy smile spreading across his face.

Nico lets out a tired little giggle. “Goodnight idiot, I love you.”

“Oh,” Jason says, “I love you too.”

Nico giggles again before going quiet.

Jason turns his head toward Nico.

“Nico,” Jason whispers.

Nico raises his head up from his resting place on Jason’s shoulder and opens his eyes.

“I really love you,” Jason whispers, leaning down to give Nico a kiss.

Nico makes a little noise of shock then leans into it making it deeper, both of them putting all the love they feel for each other into it.

And after a few minutes they both fall asleep like that, bundled up in bed deeply and safely in love.

**Author's Note:**

> Oddly Normal is a book written about a suicidal kid being picked on for being gay and how he and his family overcame the negativity. I thought it was appropriate.


End file.
